Concentrated Animal Feeding Facility Advisory Committee

January 21, 2003

Ohio Department of Agriculture

Bromfield Building

 

In attendance from the Ohio Department of Agriculture were: Jenny Tiell, Barb McGinn, Deborah Abbott, Kelly Harvey, Kristi Ford, Peggy Jackson, Michelle McKay, Jim Young, Andy Ety, Andy Rogowski, Gary Zwolinski, and Diane Conley.

 

Members Present

 

Members Absent

 

Chairman Doug Alderman called the meeting to order and reviewed the agenda.

 

September 10 Meeting Minutes

There were no changes to the meeting minutes. A motion was passed to approve the minutes as drafted.

 

Introduction of New Staff

ODA introduced Kelly Harvey, community relations liaison, to the committee. The rest of the Livestock staff was also introduced.

 

The CAFF committee introduced themselves, since we had three new members.

 

 

 

Program Report:

 

DeVries Permit

This was the first permit to go through the process. A public notice of the draft permits was published in the Marion Star on December. An open house was held at the Marion SWCD on December 16, and an information session was held on January 8 in LaRue at Elgin High School. The public meeting was held on January 14, also at Elgin High School, and written comments were being accepted until 5:00 on January 21, 2003.

 

Complaints

Complaints received have been by phone or e-mail, with one written complaint. Most have been fly and odor problems. A couple of complaints have been made about manure application. ODA has been following up on all the complaints. Most of them have been on permitted facilities. If the facility is not large enough to be permitted, then it is referred to the local SWCD or the ODNR Division of Soil and Water Conservation.

 

Most of the complaints regarding flies have been related to Buckeye Egg Farm. Some of the calls have been bounced from agency to agency. Ohio EPA and the Attorney General’s office have referred several calls to us.

 

Ohio EPA has still been going on some of the inspections because of the NPDES permits.

 

ODA has received several calls from producers starting to work on their Review Compliance Certificates.

 

U.S. EPA Presentation

Steve Jann from U.S. EPA Region V in Chicago gave a presentation on the new Final Regulations for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). Topics he discussed were:

A copy of the presentation was provided to the Committee and is available in the LEPP office

 

Implications for Ohio

ODA staff was hoping to be further along on potential rule changes than they are. ODA legal staff discussed expanding the chapter regarding NPDES and the need to incorporate new regulations for each of the animal species category. ODA will have to develop a rule requiring producers to submit an annual report. Changes will be made to Ohio Administrative Code Chapters 901:10-2, 901:10-3 and 901:10-4.

 

Kevin Elder asked the CAFF committee members what their feelings were on rule changes, and if they would want to review the changes and be involved. Chairman Alderman thought that the CAFF committee is well put together and there would be no need to appoint another committee for rule making. From a legal view, ODA will need to go back and look at the rule making statute in Chapter 121 of the Ohio Revised Code to see if the committee can change rules or if a new rule-making committee needs to be appointed. [Legal note: R.C. Chapter 121.39 requires consultation with political subdivisions, environmental interests, business interests, and person affected by the rules.]

 

R.C. Section 903.08 describes the NPDES requirements and mirrors what U.S. EPA has on the books. The delegation package will be large. On December 16, 2002, the U.S. EPA CAFO rules eliminated the definition of animal unit. The new U.S. EPA CAFO rules define animals by animal species and created categories for small, medium, and large CAFOs. There won’t be a lot of meetings held on delegation, but there will be several meetings for rule making.

 

Animal Unit Work Group Recommendations

U.S. EPA used some of the same logic that ODA did. The reason for having a permit is based on the number of animals. If the facility doesn’t have the specified animal units, now known as large CAFOs, then it is referred to ODNR.

 

ODA’s animal unit report is so close to U.S. EPA’s number of animal units that it was recommended to make it uniform across the state. The report should explain that the animal unit work group did a very in-depth study of animal units and our numbers closely matched those of U.S. EPA with a few exceptions. A question was raised to adopt U.S. EPA CAFO animal species as large, medium, and small.

 

The chairman asked for a consensus in adopting the same animal species numbers as U.S. EPA. The motion passed with one agree to disagree.

 

 

Next Meeting Information

ODA will distribute the rule information to the committee the beginning of March. The next CAFF meeting is scheduled for March 19 from 9:00 to 3:00.

 

Meeting adjourned.